MrWolf

The price tag suppressed any interest I might have had. Not that long ago though, back in the 90s I had a 1953 Vauxhall Velox, according to my neighbour, every time I drove past his satellite dish it "#@%&s up Sky sports" I called it a result.

You have another fan of proper creosote right here. I have for years been slightly confused also the idea that unleaded petrol is somehow safer and cleaner than traditional four star. Tetraethyl lead has been demonised, why? Because Joe dimwit KNOWS lead is bad. We've then removed the nasties from paint and aerosols etc. But it's fine to dump benzene butane toluene xylene et al into petroleum to up the octane (but not enough) and call it a green fuel. I have worked with benzene in particular and it's nasty stuff. So I really don't see the big issue with creosote. Give it 20 years or so and "they" will probably be telling you that smoking is good for you. If it suits their purposes and makes them rich of course!

That's a lovely old thing, great period box artwork too. But £1500 ???

I like it. Interesting. 0-6-0 steam loco. Archaic tender. Stylish but near useless cab. Paint it Great Western green and it would tick all my boxes for a proper engine!

I know I would be! What's the betting that half a dozen of these kits come out of the woodwork next week with a BIN price of "only" £399.99 (plus £4.99 post of course, can't go offering free post at that money you know!)

Thankyou everyone for your advice, the plan I have (plan, what plan?) is making more sense now. I had pinched the Shipston track plan years ago because it suited what I wanted to model, although I mirror imaged it. I realised that a BLT was not what I wanted for several reasons. I wanted to run through traffic. I wanted to set the model as a might have been at a real location, but that location is only small and wouldn't justify building a railway. If I set it as the block post and first station after the junction with the main line, I could probably justify a small engine shed. The other excuse being that there simply wasn't enough space at the terminus location. I had been thinking that I needed a catch point. Didn't think I would get away with it! I think I had better get on with things, not to mention start a layout topic in an attempt to explain my ramblings!

At the risk of being judged a cynic, I'm glad I'm not married anymore. The only kind of hump I got then was of the broken television variety. You know the one, picture, no sound. What were we talking about? Oh yes, that Millholme J28 is now up to £290 and 40 bids. It's a nice looking loco but ouch! Especially as the original poster pointed out that it is still available for £100.

IKEA stuff, for all we mock it is on a different planet to the old melamine covered Weetabix we used to get. Did your girlfriend perhaps push that windscreen out in the same way one of my girlfriends broke off the rear view mirror in my Triumph Spitfire?

iI found that flat pack furniture works just fine IF you run PVA wood glue into every single joint face, especially the drawer bottoms (usually just a little undersized, the cheapskates) assembling. It also works for old wonky stuff if you have the patience to dismantle the things. Easiest way is to drop it on one corner ... I broke the windscreen in a. Mini 850 once, just by tilting the passenger seat with a little too much gusto. That was embarrassing!

My brother in law always said Made For Idiots.

Thanks Roythebus, that's a great help! I think I should now re-draw my track diagram with the signals in the positions you have indicated, hopefully having understood that comprehensive instruction! Matters became more complicated with the realisation that I need to signal for both directions of travel. It looks like I should move the signal box position, though I had originally thought that the gates wouldn't be anything more than manually opened and positioning it at the western (left hand) of the platform, would involve less complications with the point rodding and sighting. To be honest I hadn't given much thought to the subject of token exchange, although I know that some stations had the token machinery in the station building. Whether that was considered bad practice after the Abermule crash I'm not certain.

MFI, now there's a blast from the past! (Or perhaps just an unnerving bowel rumble?) Would that be classed as vintage, retro, classic or collectable? All I know for certain is that it made lousy firewood...

and it's definitely cheaper!

Hello all, I am told that the best place to come for advice on signalling for my current project. I am currently building a single line through station based on 1920s-30s GWR practice. I have unashamedly pinched the track plan from Shipston on Stour, removed the terminus hezdshunt and taken the platform road onwards through a manned level crossing towards the (theoretical) junction with the main line. I have had about a 20 year break from modelling and haven't much idea where, or what side of the track I would be placing signals. I have marked the site of the signal box by the main concentration of points and giving the best view of the station area. I propose to have the engine shed siding operated by hand lever, am I right in thinking that it would require a ground signal? If so, where? Excuse the scruffy drawing, there is no computer in this house. (There are a few of us left!)

Possibly even "kit built", because that screw may well have come from a bookcase kit by IKEA.

Looks suspiciously like a 5mm self tapper for chipboard. You can almost hear the plastic cracking as that was wound in!

So THAT'S where my ACME V2 rocket landed!

The neighbours haven't yet forgiven me for subscribing to "Build your own ACME V2 rocket in your back yard"...

Same seller has the Hachette Build the Flying Scotsman complete issues for £425, just like the real thing, it will bankrupt you!

I seem to find half a tin of the stuff every time I clear out an old shed or garage. Are you old enough to remember when everyone's grandfather had a shed or garage that contained a workbench and tools that actually got used by someone with practical skills? As they faded away, so did industry and our ability to fend for ourselves. We model makers might just be the last real men on earth. The ladies might swoon over some one trick pony pretty boy, but if they need a tyre changing or a war fighting, it's down to us....

He's probably the same bloke who years ago would buy a starter motor for his car from a breakers yard then try to return his broken one and get his money back. Breakers were wise to that sort of thing and test run it before you paid. Unfortunately, that can't be done with online sales. The other scam, which I have actually seen someone get caught out with was to buy a power tool (in this case a petrol strimmer) use it and then return it to the DIY store they bought it from saying it is faulty. Knowing that the staff are not permitted to test run anything claimed to be faulty, they get their money back, saving buying or hiring tools. Of course, some pull the same trick once too often. The bloke abandoned his strimmer and ran out of the store!

Inhaling all the time!

That's the stuff I couldn't recall as the tin is grubby and at least 50 years old. I don't think that I have ever actually bought a tin of flux!

That would be it, I usually use Bakers or some other flux that is so old I am not sure what it is and industrial solder (Thrown out years ago by BAe as non conforming) for wiring and cables or sticks of tinsmiths solder and tinning paste for sheet metal work. I have been using cored solder from one of the big electronics suppliers and it's been driving me mad. But it worked with miss first timer because she didn't know it was cored and dunked it in the flux tin.

I see that you have some old Airfix locos too.